Blast From the Past
by Icy Cold Fox
Summary: 18 years after having failed to get Akiza back into Arcadia, Sayer decides that the only way to get revenge is to go after and destroy Claire Fudo, the daughter of Yusei and Akiza Fudo. Claire will need her wits and the support of her friends and family to stay ahead of Sayer, but will that be enough to stop his plans?
1. Prologue

Icy Cold Fox: Hello there! This here is my first attempt at my first fanfiction story. I don't own anything of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters. I only own the characters I've created and the storyline. This first chapter is really just a prologue, but I hope you'll enjoy it, as well as the rest of the story as it comes along.

Blast From the Past

Prologue

"Stardust Dragon! End this now and attack with Cosmic Flare!"

The crowd was cheering wildly as Yusei Fudo commanded his best monster to launch the winning blow against his opponent. They cheered even louder as his dragon's attack successfully hit its target, and his opponent's duel runner came to a stop steaming as their life points reached zero.

He drove his red duel runner towards the pit where his friends, and crew, were waiting for him, who were also cheering for his victory. He let his friends crowd around him for a minute to congratulate him before he decided to get off of his runner. As he kept exchanging glances with his friends and giving his thanks for their support, he noticed that his wife, Akiza, looked much more excited than the rest of his friends, even Leo, who always seemed to be the one cheering the loudest for Yusei. In fact, Yusei also saw that Akiza had a few tears running down her face, even though she didn't look sad at all.

"You don't look sad. What has the tears all worked up?" Yusei inquired as he gave Akiza a quick kiss on the lips and embraced her. "You hardly ever cry happy tears."

Akiza pulled Yusei off to the side, so as not to let the others hear what she had to tell him.

"I have very wonderful news, but I don't want the others to hear just yet." Akiza told her husband.

"What's the news, Akiza?" Yusei questioned.

"Well.." Akiza began shyly, "let's just say that pretty soon, it isn't going to be just you and me living together anymore." She told him honestly. She began to blush a bit after she finished telling Yusei her news.

"Akiza.." Yusei started. "Are you saying that you're..." His voice started to trail off as he started to sound excited as he asked away.

"Yes, Yusei." Akiza interrupted before he could finish his question. "We're going to be parents, Yusei! I can't believe it. This is the best thing to ever happen to us!" Akiza nearly shouted as she let her excitement get the best of her.

"What's all the commotion over there you two?" The Australian-accented voice that both Yusei and Akiza recognized to belong to their friend, Jack, asked in a way that almost sounded demanding for an answer.

"Nothing Jack, just having a little conversation." They both half-lied in response to Jack's question.

"This is fantastic. I can't wait until the day we officially become parents." Akiza said quietly to her husband.

"I know." Yusei replied. "This baby will be the best thing to ever..." Yusei trailed off as he heard a loud thud, followed by footsteps walking away and he turned in the direction he heard them coming from. He figured Akiza heard the noise as well since she was also looking in that direction.

"Who do you think that could have been?" Akiza asked.

"It probably wasn't anybody we need to be concerned about." Yusei replied. "But what we should be concerned about, is that how this baby will be the best thing to ever come into our lives." As he finished talking, he pulled his wife into another embrace for a kiss, and then they started laughing together, both taking great joy in the thought of becoming parents.

* * *

Icy Cold Fox: Well, that's it for the prologue.

Yusei: Are you sure? We don't even know how far away this is from the last events from the show.

Icy Cold Fox: Not to worry, Yusei. You'll find out soon enough.

Akiza: Knowing you, "soon" isn't exactly a reliable word. And are you sure that other author will like you taking the idea of interacting with characters like this?

Icy Cold Fox: Just be patient. All will be revealed. And Akiza; that author's name is AnimeKiwi369, and I don't think she'll mind too much, as I give her complete credit for coming up with the idea. Besides, what author wouldn't want to have a bit of fun by interacting with the characters?

Yusei and Akiza: Yeah, sure. Now don't you have one last thing to take care of?

Icy Cold Fox: Why, yes. Thank you. Please read and review. Any reviews are appreciated, but kind reviews would be more appreciated for the first chapter of my first fanfiction.


	2. Family Workings

Icy Cold Fox: Hello again! I hope you all enjoyed the prologue!

Claire: I didn't.. You didn't put me in it. *pouts*

Icy Cold Fox: Claire, you weren't even born yet in the time that the prologue takes place. But not to worry, you'll be in this chapter.

Claire: Really?!

Icy Cold Fox: Well, yeah. I have to introduce you somewhere in here, since this is your story after all. What better place to do so than in the first chapter?

Claire: True.. By the way, aren't you forgetting to do something? Something that's kind of important?

Icy Cold Fox: Thanks for reminding me. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters, only the characters I've created and the storyline. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Family Workings

Out on the streets of New Domino City, a young teenager is out riding her duel runner throughout the city, having no set destination in mind. She figured she would let the wind decide where she would go; at least until it got late enough to where she decided she should head home.

Claire Fudo didn't like the idea of not being able to stay out on her runner for as long as she wanted, but she didn't mind too much, because when she got home after being out this late, her mother would be home making dinner, and on most days, she usually beats her father home by only a few minutes. She liked being around her parents. When she didn't feel like going out riding her runner or hanging out with her friends, she chose to spend time with her parents if they were home from work. Claire hated it when her parents were at work not only because she didn't get to spend time with them when they were, but also because she'd let her boredom push her to take a nap, which she didn't prefer to do so when she wasn't stressed about anything.

When one or both of her parents were home though, she'd usually do anything she could to help them, like help her mother in the garden or help her father with one of the engines on either one of the cars or the duel runners.

Claire admired what both of her parents did. Her mother part-owned one of the most successful garden shops in New Domino City. Claire always had the thought that this suited her mother, Akiza, as her mother used to be the duelist known as "The Black Rose" and has always enjoyed flowers. Claire especially likes how her mother always keeps the shop looking beautiful with garden life, as well as their own home's garden, which her mother always tried to making their garden looking as nice as the shop, if not nicer. Claire's father also part-owned one of the most successful businesses in New Domino City, but for duel runners rather than gardens. Claire deemed that this suited for her father, Yusei, since he was still currently the Turbo Duel champion of New Domino City, and he usually works on improving the engines of the family's cars and duel runners, even if they couldn't be improved at the time.

With the thoughts of her parents in mind, Claire decided she would head home a little bit early. She felt like spending time with her mother before her father got home from work.

After fifteen more minutes of riding, Claire arrived at the garage of her home and got off her runner, pressed the button on her duel runner to open the garage and then walked the runner inside. She noticed as she walked in that her father's runner was already in the garage.

_Strange._ Claire thought. _Dad doesn't normally get here before me, and I'm still a few minutes earlier than usual. _She figured that Yusei had gotten off of work a bit early and was able to beat her home because of that.

"I'm home!" Claire announced as she walked in through the garage door. As soon as she heard an acknowledgment from her parents hearing that she's home, she went upstairs and into her room. She took off her riding boots, which were black with red stripes down the sides. She then took off her helmet and let her hair fall. Her hair was black with burgundy streaks through it. She then took off her riding jacket, which was very similar to her father's jacket, except it was colored a dark purple rather than the blue that her father's had.

She then went to her bathroom to wash up. She noticed as she looked in the mirror that she was sweating a little. _Must have just started to get a little heated in my helmet before I took it off. _She thought to herself as she splashed water on her face from the sink. As Claire started to dry off her face with the nearby towel, she looked at herself in the mirror to make sure she didn't miss any wet spots. She had her mother's skin color and eye shape, but had her father's eye color. Claire always thought it was a bit funny that she looked almost completely like her mother, minus her hair and eye color, which she got from her father. It sometimes made it a little hard for her to believe she was really Yusei's daughter.

After finishing cleaning up, she headed back downstairs and went into the living room where her father was sitting on the couch, looking over a duel runner schematic.

"Hi daddy." Claire said as she sat down next to her father.

"Hey sweetie." Yusei said, setting his schematic on the table in front of the couch. "How was my favorite little girl's day?" He asked ruffling his daughter's hair.

Claire squirmed and giggled a bit as he played with her hair. "It was alright dad. Nothing too exciting, but not boring either." She took a glance at the schematic on the table. "What's this one for dad?" She asked.

Yusei grabbed the schematic from the table and set it between their laps. "Nothing too complicated. Just a formulation to try and get the runner to go faster without wearing out the runner's tires." He explained as his daughter looked at the schematic.

While neither of them were paying attention, Akiza came into the living room, walking up behind the couch. She put one hand over both Yusei's and Claire's eyes, spooking them both, but got a much more surprised reaction from her daughter than from her husband. "Dinner is just about ready." Akiza said, laughing at both of them.

"Okay." Both replied, also starting to laugh. "How was your day mom?" Claire asked.

"It was good now that I've gotten to spook you." Akiza joked. "But disregarding that, it was still a good day."

"That's good." Claire commented. "So what's for dinner, mom?" She asked curiously.

"Nothing too complicated. Just spaghetti and meatballs." Akiza answered. "Think you can handle it this time?" She questioned while trying to scuffle a laugh.

"Hey! Just because I ate it too fast and ended up choking last time doesn't mean I can't handle it!" Claire remarked laughing. As much as she didn't like to remember that, it always made her and her parents laugh looking back at it. Claire smiled as her parents continued to laugh for a minute more. She knew that her parents would love her no matter how silly some of the things she did were.

_**Later That Night**_

Claire was up in her room laying on her stomach on her bed. She was going through her dueling deck, preparing it. Her deck was composed of Spellcaster-type monsters. She took great joy in her deck, as her parents had gotten her nearly every card that was in it, and some of those cards were incredibly difficult to find.

"I saw the light on. You aren't up this late normally. What's keeping you up?" Her father's voice spooked her as Yusei came in the room.

"I didn't hear you come in." Claire replied. "I'm just going through my cards, daddy."

"Staying up late to prepare for your duel with your friends tomorrow?" He asked.

Claire nodded. Yusei noticed that his daughter was currently holding on to one of her favorite cards. "I'm happy to see you still like that Dark Magician card. That card, and the Skilled Dark Magician that your mother found, were the hardest cards to look for in that deck of yours." Yusei commented, sitting down next to his daughter. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you admire Yugi Moto too much." He joked.

"Don't be silly, dad." Claire replied. "Even though I do admire Yugi a little, I admire you and mom much more than I could ever admire him." She smiled and sat up to hug her father. Yusei hugged his daughter back, a smiling forming on his face as well. He let go after a minute.

"I'm going to head on up to bed now." Yusei told his daughter. "Good night, Claire. I love you." He kissed his daughter's forehead.

"Good night, dad. Love you too." Claire replied, and her father left her room. She failed to hold back a yawn as she set her deck on her nightstand and lied down on the bed. _Guess I'll have to finish in the morning after breakfast before I have to go meet my friends._ She thought with a smile as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Icy Cold Fox: Well, that's it for the first chapter.

Claire: So I'm close to my parents, huh?

Icy Cold Fox: Yep, whether you like it or not. *evil grin*

Claire: I didn't say I was complaining. I actually quite like how you've set this set up so far.

Icy Cold Fox: Why thank you.

Yusei: Aren't you forgetting something?

Icy Cold Fox: Huh? Oh yes, thank you Yusei. Please read and review. Any reviews are appreciated, but for now, kind reviews are more appreciated. I will try to have the next chapter or two updated by next week, granted my schedule doesn't interfere too much.


	3. Friendly Competition

Icy Cold Fox: Welcome back! I hope you've been enjoying the story so far.

Claire: I know I have!

Icy Cold Fox: I know you have Claire.. It's your story after all.

Claire: Yep! And if I may say so, this chapter is here sooner than expected.

Icy Cold Fox: Yep. My schedule has been pretty easy the last couple of days, so I was able to focus on this.

Claire: That's good. So what happens in this chapter?

Icy Cold Fox: You'll just have to read and find out.

Claire: Fine.. Just get on with it then.

Icy Cold Fox: Impatient today, Claire?

Claire: Pretty much.

Icy Cold Fox: Well alright then. I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters. I only own the characters I've created and the storyline. Cards in bold are cards that I created. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2

Friendly Competition

Claire woke up with a yawn the following morning. She got out of bed and went into her bathroom. She turned on the water for the sink and started splashing a little bit of water in her face in an attempt to wake herself up some.

She heard a knock on her bedroom door, followed by Akiza's voice. "Breakfast will be ready in about ten minutes." She told her daughter. Claire then heard her mother's footsteps walking away, so she figured that her mother must have gone back downstairs to finish with making breakfast.

Claire decided to get dressed before going downstairs. She slipped on a pair of blue jeans and a plain purple t-shirt, and then put on her black riding boots with red stripes down the sides of them.

After she finished getting dressed, Claire went downstairs into the kitchen.

"I was wondering if you were going to come downstairs. I was starting to think I'd have to materialize Rose Tentacles to get you down here." Akiza said to her daughter as she came in. She and Yusei had only just started to eat their breakfast, but Claire didn't mind that they had started eating without her.

"Breakfast smells good, mom." Claire commented. She sat down in the seat in between her parents at the table and they ate their breakfast in a comfortable silence. She really didn't mind at all if they ate quietly, as long as the mood felt right. She could tell that whenever breakfast felt good, she would end up having a better day than not.

After they finished eating, Claire offered to do the dishes as her thanks for her mother making breakfast. Once she finished washing the dishes and dried off her hands, she went upstairs back to her room to finish preparing her deck for the duel with friends later that day.

_**A couple hours later**_

Claire rode her purplish-red duel runner to the park where she was planning to meet her friends.

She noticed three parked duel runners, and recognized them instantly. _So I'm the last one here? I hope I haven't kept them waiting too long._ Claire thought as she dismounted her runner and took off her helmet, setting it on her runner. She spotted her friends at the park's dueling fields.

"Hey guys!" Claire shouted as she hurried over to where two of her friends were currently dueling. The two dueling didn't say anything, as they were concentrating on the duel, but they waved to her to acknowledge she had arrived.

"Good to see you made it, Claire." The duelists' spectator replied.

"How much of their duel have I missed, Rebecca?" Claire asked her friend who was watching. Rebecca was born as the daughter of Kalin Kessler and Misty Tredwell-Kessler, and currently thirteen years old, which made her the youngest of the group with Keith and Ben being fourteen and Claire having just turned fifteen less than three months ago. She looked mostly like Kalin having light blue hair that was slightly long. The only trait she knew she got from her mother, Misty, was her blue eyes.

"Not too much. Keith is about to beat Ben again, like he does more than half the time." Rebecca replied. Keith, like Rebecca, was born to Kalin and Misty, except since he was born a little over year before Rebecca, that made him Rebecca's older brother. They were often mistaken as twins, because Keith also had Kalin's light blue hair, but kept it shorter than Rebecca's, and he also had Misty's blue eyes. He also wasn't very much taller than her. Ben was the son of Jack and Carly Atlas. He looked like a miniature version of Jack that had Carly's gray-blue eyes.

"Scrap Dragon! Attack him now and finish this!" Ben was commanding to his monster.

"Looks like you forgot to check my defenses again, Benji." Keith informed Ben, calling him by "Benji" as his way to taunt him. "I activate my Magic Cylinder trap card! Now your dragon's attack will hit you instead of me!"

Ben watched in disbelief as his dragon's attack was redirected at him and brought his life points down to 0.

"Finally.." Rebecca muttered to Claire. "They were at this for about an hour."

"Yeah, those two always take forever when they duel." Claire agreed. "I guess it's a good thing I arrived as they were just about finished." She pulled her deck out and gave it one last check to make sure she had all the cards she planned to use.

"Hey Claire. You ready to duel yet?" Keith asked, getting her attention.

"You should know better than to ask that." Claire replied with a grin. She went to take her place on the opposite side of the duel arena across from Keith.

"Let's duel!" both shouted.

Claire: 4000; Keith: 4000

"I'll go first." Keith announced. Claire looked at her hand as Keith drew his card. _This should be good._ She thought.

"I'll lay down a monster in defense mode and play a face-down. You're up." Keith said as he played his cards.

_Not much of a start. Typical for Keith to go off with that little of a start._ Claire thought to herself again. "Alright, I draw then! And for my first move I'll summon Breaker the Magical Warrior in attack mode." The red warrior appeared on her side of the field as she played the card in her monster zone.

Breaker the Magical Warrior: Lv. 4. 1600 ATK/1000 DEF

"As I'm sure you know Keith, Breaker gains a spell counter when he's normal summoned, which will increase his attack points by 300." She informed her opponent.

Breaker the Magical Warrior: Lv. 4. ATK 1900/DEF 1000

"And now I'll activate Breaker's ability. By removing his spell counter and bringing his attack back down to 1600, I can destroy your face-down card." Breaker's attack points went back down to his original 1600 as he swung his sword at Keith's face-down card, destroying it.

"Nice." Keith commented.

"Thanks, but I'm not done yet." Claire replied. "Now I'll activate the spell card Magical Dimension, which will let me tribute Breaker to summon another spellcaster from my hand in his place, and then I can destroy one monster on the field!" She announced excitedly. Keith wondered where her move was going.

"Breaker, you've served your purpose well. I tribute you in order for Magical Dimension to let me summon my Skilled Dark Magician in attack mode!"

Skilled Dark Magician: Lv. 4. ATK 1900/DEF 1700

"And now for Magical Dimension's second effect; say goodbye to your face-down monster!" Keith could only watch as his only remaining defense was destroyed.

"Now I activate my spell card, Upstart Goblin. By activating this spell, you get to gain 1000 life points, but I get to draw another card, and my Skilled Dark Magician gains a spell counter for its activation." She drew her card as her effects resolved.

Claire: 4000; Keith: 5000

_Excellent._ She thought. "I now play the spell card, Terraforming! And as I'm sure you know, Terraforming lets me search for a field spell from my deck and add it to my hand. And Skilled Dark Magician will also gain his second spell counter." She added her desired card to her hand after revealing it to her opponent.

"This isn't good at all.." Keith muttered to himself.

"I'll now activate the card I just added to my hand, Secret Village of the Spellcasters! Not only will this give my Magician his third spell counter, but now you can't activate any of your spell cards as long as you lack control of a spellcaster-type monster on your side of the field." She told her opponent, who started to sweat a little as he came to realization that he was now starting to get backed into a corner badly.

"Looks like Claire has this duel set strongly in her favor." Ben commented.

"Yeah." Rebecca agreed, nodding. "Especially if Claire has what I think she has in her hand."

"Well Keith, since my Skilled Dark Magician has three counters on him, I think you know what happens next." Claire noticed for the first time how much Keith was sweating in his predicament, and that made her smile a little. "I now tribute my Skilled Dark Magician with three spell counters on it in order to summon my Dark Magician from my deck!" The purple armored magician appeared on the field as the other one left it.

Dark Magician: Lv. 7. ATK 2500/DEF 2100

"Nice. With her favorite monster on the field, I don't think she'll lose now." Rebecca commented. Ben nodded in agreement.

Claire was impressed with herself for getting her field set up, but she didn't let herself get excited just yet. _If I know Keith as well as I think I do, he probably has a powerful combo in his hand that he'll be able to use as soon as or right after I declare an attack._ She thought cautiously.

"I activate my **Magician's Sacrifice** spell card." Claire announced. "By giving up half of my life points while I control a Dark Magician, I get to draw three cards, but I have to remove from play any of them that I don't use by the end of my next turn, and I take 700 damage for each one removed by this effect." Claire's life points went down as she drew her cards.

Claire: 2000; Keith: 5000

"I now play **Magician's Swap**. By discarding a spellcaster from my hand to the graveyard, I can draw another card. And so I'll choose to discard my Magician's Valkyria." She sent her monster to her graveyard and drew her card. _Excellent!_ She thought to herself.

"This is definitely exciting. When Claire's turns last this long, something cool is just bound to happen." Ben commented. "If she didn't use her psychic powers to stack her deck, then I'd say she's really lucky today."

Rebecca hit her friend on the arm. "How many times have Claire and I explained to you that she would never use her powers to cheat like that, even if she could?" She asked Ben with a hint of annoyance in her voice. _I'm glad Claire didn't hear that._ Rebecca thought. Claire and Rebecca both hated it when Ben joked around about how Claire might or might not use her psychic powers, which she inherited from Akiza. They didn't find it funny.

"Ow! That hurt a bit." Ben complained.

"Good. Now just watch the duel so that we don't miss anything good." Rebecca instructed her friend.

"Alright Dark Magician, attack his life points directly!" Claire was commanding to her monster. The magician thrust his staff towards Keith, shooting magic energy at him to launch the attack.

Claire: 2000; Keith: 2500

Keith took the hit and started to laugh a little.

"What's so funny?" Claire asked, surprised by his reaction to her attack.

"Due to your attack, and since you so kindly destroyed my defenses, I can now summon Gorz the Emissary of Darkness from my hand! And since I was able to summon him due to taking damage from a direct attack, I also get to summon an Emissary of Darkness Token, with attack and defense equal to the damage I took, to join Gorz on the field." The two monsters appeared on Keith's field, with Claire showing a bit of a surprised reaction, not expecting this move.

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness: Lv. 7. ATK 2700/DEF 2500  
Emissary of Darkness Token: Lv. 7. ATK 2500/DEF 2500

_That's definitely a new card. He must have just gotten it recently, since I haven't seen him use it before._ Claire thought to herself. She wasn't too worried though.

"That was a good move there, Keith. But it will take more than to get ahead of me. I now remove Breaker the Magical Warrior and Magician's Valkyria from my graveyard in order to summon my Chaos Sorcerer!" She announced as her monster appeared on the field, her voice not wavering, even though she was still surprised from Keith's move.

Chaos Sorcerer: Lv. 6. ATK 2300/DEF 2000

"I now activate my Sorcerer's ability to remove your Gorz from the game!" Keith looked a bit surprised as Claire's monster made his disappear.

"Now in case you had any plans of attacking, I'm going to activate my Solidarity spell card. Since my graveyard only has spellcaster-type monsters in it right now, this spell will give all spellcasters I control 800 more attack points!"

Dark Magician: Lv. 7. ATK 3300/DEF 2100  
Chaos Sorcerer: Lv. 6. ATK 3100/DEF 2000

"I'll now lay two cards face-down and end my turn." Claire said as her two cards appeared on the field.

"Alright, I draw then!" Keith declared. "And I'll summon Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress in attack mode." The monster appeared on his field, and Claire wondered where this turn would go.

Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress: Lv. 4. ATK 1700/DEF 200

"Before I make my next move, I'll use Lyla's effect to switch herself to defense mode and destroy your Spellcaster Village!" Claire didn't flinch as she watched her field spell get destroyed.

"Now that your village is out of the way.." He continued, "I now activate my spell card, Heavy Storm to destroy all of the spells and traps you control!" Claire was surprised by Keith's move, but again managed to remain calm.

"In response to that, I'll activate my trap cards, Jar of Greed and Reckless Greed. In total, I'll get to draw three cards, while Reckless Greed makes me skip my next two draw phases." Her traps resolved, followed by the destruction of her Solidarity spell by Keith's Heavy Storm.

"Now with Solidarity gone, your monsters' attack points return to their normal strength!" Keith pointed out for her.

Dark Magician: Lv. 7. ATK 2500/DEF 2100  
Chaos Sorcerer: Lv. 6. ATK 2300/DEF 2000

"Now my Emissary of Darkness Token, take down her Chaos Sorcerer!" Claire's monster shattered into pieces as Keith's monster landed its attack on it, and her life points took a small hit.

Claire: 1800; Keith: 2500

"I'll go ahead and end my turn with that. And since it is now my end phase, I send the top 3 cards of my deck to my graveyard due to Lyla's effect. Your move, Claire." Keith said finishing his turn while sending his cards to the graveyard.

"Alright then. Since I can't draw due to my Reckless Greed, I'll go straight out with my turn by activating my spell card, Monster Reborn! With it I can bring my Chaos Sorcerer back to the field." A smile formed on Claire's lips as her monster reappeared on her field.

Keith noticed her smile almost immediately. "What are you planning?" He asked.

"Oh, you're about to see what." Claire replied. "Now that I've brought back my sorcerer, I now summon the tuner monster, Effect Veiler! But it won't be staying for long, as I tune my level one Effect Veiler with my level six Chaos Sorcerer in order to synchro summon my Arcanite Magician!" Her tuner turned into a single ring while her sorcerer turned into 6 stars as it went through the ring, and the white armored magician appeared on her side of the field.

Arcanite Magician: Lv. 7. ATK 400/DEF 1800

"He may look weak, but when Arcanite Magician is synchro summoned, he gains 2 spell counters, and gains 1000 attack for each spell counter that's on him." Claire informed her opponent, who was staring at her new monster, somewhat shocked.

Arcanite Magician: ATK 2400/DEF 1800

"Impressive Claire. I was not expecting that at all." Keith admitted.

"What?!" Ben broke out on the side lines. "Arcanite Magician is Claire's other favorite monster alongside Dark Magician. How were you not expecting it?!"

Rebecca hit Ben on the arm again. "Calm down Ben. Claire doesn't get to summon Arcanite Magician very often."

"You know, one of these days I'm going to get back at you if I end up suffering permanent arm damage from you hitting me." Ben said with a smirk.

"Just be quiet and watch the rest of the duel, Ben." Rebecca told him, starting to get very annoyed.

"I now activate Arcanite Magician's special ability. By removing a spell counter from my side of the field, I can destroy one card you have on the field. But since Arcanite Magician is the only card I have with spell counters right now, I'll take one off of him and destroy your Emissary of Darkness Token!" Claire's monster's attack points dropped as it destroyed Keith's token. "But I'm not stopping there. I'm going to use Arcanite's effect again to destroy your Sorceress." Claire's monster returned back to its original 400 attack points as it destroyed Keith's last monster.

"Very nice. Well played." Keith complimented.

"Thanks. Now instead of attacking with my Dark Magician, I think I'll do this next move instead since you haven't seen it before." Claire said, getting a confused look from all of her friends.

"I activate my spell card, Miracle Synchro Fusion! By removing from play the synchro monster, Arcanite Magician, along with my Dark Magician, I can fusion summon my Supreme Arcanite Magician!" Claire shouted very excitedly as the bluish-purple armored magician appeared on her field.

Supreme Arcanite Magician: Lv. 10. ATK 1400/DEF 2800

"Whoa!" Ben and Rebecca breathed out in unison. "I've never seen that monster before." Ben said, awestruck.

"I guess that's why Claire is the best duelist out of all of us." Rebecca admitted.

Claire noticed that Keith was looking at her newly summoned magician as if he was seeing something from a dream. "As I'm sure you're wondering, much like Arcanite Magician, when Supreme Arcanite Magician is fusion summoned, he gains two spell counters, and gains 1000 attack points for each counter that he has."

Supreme Arcanite Magician: Lv. 10. ATK 3400/DEF 2800

"Alright Arcanite Magician, let's end this! Attack him directly!" Claire commanded. Keith could do nothing but watch as Claire's Supreme Arcanite Magician took out the remainder of his life points.

Claire: 1800; Keith: 0

As her monster disappeared with the conclusion of the duel, Claire walked to up Keith, who was still standing there, but had put a smile on his face as Claire approached him. "That was a great duel." He commented. "That was an amazing finishing move. I'm going to guess that magician is a new addition to the deck?" He asked kindly. Ben and Rebecca walked up to them to join in on the conversation.

"It has to be new. Seeing as we've never seen her use it before." Ben commented.

"For once, Ben has a point. It's really impressive looking also." Rebecca stated.

"Thanks guys. And I enjoyed our duel, Keith." She said smiling. "As we all knew, I could have won just the same by attacking with Dark Magician. But I took the risk of the extra fusion summon because I wanted to show my appreciation for my dad being able to find Supreme Arcanite Magician by playing it today." She admitted honestly with a smile.

They then decided for Rebecca and Ben to have a duel, as Ben commented that it would be his way of getting back at Rebecca for hitting him so many times while they were watching the previous duel. Claire and Keith mainly talked about dueling strategies while they watched their friends duel, which eventually resulted in a draw.

After talking and sitting around with her friends for a little while longer, Claire decided it was time for her to go, even though she didn't need to be home for at least an hour or two, and she waved goodbye to them as she walked towards her duel runner.

_Today has been just perfect._ Claire thought with a smile as she put on her helmet and mounted her duel runner, and sped off, having no set destination in mind.

_**Meanwhile, in another part of the city**_

"Are you familiar with the task at hand?" A man's voice asked.

"Yes." Replied another voice. "Find the girl; push her to her limits in a duel, and scare her to the point of exhaustion."

"Good. Now go see to it that phase one of the plan works." The first voice ordered.

"Yes sir. You won't be disappointed." The second voice replied, and then left the room.

_Finally._ The man now alone thought. _I will have my revenge._

* * *

Icy Cold Fox: Well, this has been a pretty exciting chapter, wouldn't you say?

Claire: I suppose so. That was quite a long duel.

Icy Cold Fox: Well, the chapter is called "Friendly Competition", so it was to be assumed that a duel would take a big part in the chapter. And are you saying you didn't have fun, Claire? Because I would be disappointed for my main character to have not liked it.

Claire: I didn't say I didn't like it. I actually enjoyed it, and I'm curious to know what's next.

Icy Cold Fox: Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that, especially come next chapter.

Claire: And why's that?

Icy Cold Fox: You'll just have to wait like everyone else until the next chapter is posted for that answer.

Claire: Oh fine, be that way. And one more thing you forgot to mention.

Icy Cold Fox: Yes, Claire?

Claire: Icy Cold Fox would like to thank you for reading and to please review. Any reviews are appreciated, but for now since its still early in the story, kinder reviews are more appreciated.

Icy Cold Fox: Thank you for taking care of that, Claire. I will try to have the next chapter up soon, granted I don't kill myself from studying for calculus finals that I have this week and next week.


	4. Trouble Rides Along

Icy Cold Fox: Oh, hi there! Sorry if I took a bit long to update. Glad to see you've all come back for more!

Claire: Well of course I have. I'm supposed to be the main character according to you.

Icy Cold Fox: I was talking to the readers, Claire.

Claire: Well then, be that way.

Icy Cold Fox: I will.

Claire: So what's the chapter about?

Icy Cold Fox: You should know better by now than to ask that.

Claire: Ugh. Can't you give a little something away?

Icy Cold Fox: Nope. It's more exciting when you don't have any hints.

Claire: Oh fine.

Icy Cold Fox: Now seeing as that is settled; I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters. I only own the characters and cards that I created.

Claire: Like me!

Icy Cold Fox: Yes. If you see any cards in bold, those are the cards I created. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3

Trouble Rides Along

Claire could feel the wind blowing against her face as she rode her duel runner throughout New Domino. She didn't feel like going anywhere in particular, but she didn't feel like heading home yet either.

As she made a quick turn, she noticed that another duel runner had started following her. She didn't think of the other runner as anything besides someone heading in the same direction as she was.

"_Overriding duel runner." _Claire's runner's computer announced after a short moment, quickly catching her attention. She looked around and saw that there weren't any Sector Security officers around, but even if there were, she hadn't done anything she was aware of to get their attention. She gasped as she realized that the duelist behind her must have somehow hacked into her runner's computer to force her into a turbo duel. _Who is this person? Why does he want to duel me?_

Their runners pulled into the turbo duel lane. Claire then got a better look at her opponent's runner, clearly noticing that it was larger than hers. She got a closer look at her opponent, and noticed that he seemed like he was glad that he caught her for a turbo duel, as if she was his prey.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" Claire demanded from her unknown follower. The other duelist remained silent. "Answer me!" Claire nearly shouted, starting to get a little frightened.

"You're in no position to be making demands, especially when you already sound scared." Her opponent replied. "You may call me Erodan." He told her, and then remained silent for a moment.

"What do you want from me?" Claire asked him.

"Impatient for an answer, aren't you?" Erodan replied. "Very well. Let's just say that after hearing that you're supposed to be a good duelist, I thought I would see if that was true." He told Claire with a threatening tone in his voice.

Claire remained silent. _Yeah. Right. _Claire thought to herself. _If that was it, then why go through the trouble of hacking into my runner's computer?_

"_Activating Speed World 2 field spell. Autopilot engaged._" Both runner's computers announced.

"Let's duel!" Both duelists shouted.

Claire: 4000; Erodan: 4000

Speed Counters: Claire: 0; Erodan: 0

"Chivalry's dead, I'm going first." Erodan announced, drawing his card. "And for my first move, I summon my Thunder King Rai-Oh to the field."

Thunder King Rai-Oh: Lv. 4. ATK 1900/DEF 800

"W-what is that?" Claire asked. _I've never heard of this card before._ She thought to herself.

"Let's just say you won't be searching for any cards except by drawing them." Erodan answered. "And now for my next move, I'm going to activate the speed spell Overboost, and increase my speed counters by six until my end phase, at which time they'll go down to 1."

Speed Counters: Claire: 0; Erodan: 6

"And now that I have two or more speed counters, I'm going to activate the speed spell Double Summon in order to normal summon another monster this turn." He continued. "I summon my Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo!" Erodan's second monster appeared on his side of the field alongside his Thunder King.

Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo: Lv. 4. ATK 1200/DEF 1300

_I haven't seen this monster before either._ Claire thought with fear. "And w-what does he do?" She asked her opponent.

"Hahahaha! I can hear the fear in your voice!" Erodan said as he started laughing. "Let's just say that now you won't be special summoning or searching out your cards now! And for safe measures, I'll lay this card face-down and end my turn, which will now bring my speed counters down to 1." He laughed even harder as he ended his turn.

Speed Counters: Claire: 0; Erodan: 1

_This isn't going to go well.. _Claire thought to herself starting to get worried.

_**At the Fudo household**_

Akiza was in the living room, sitting on the couch reading a book when Yusei came in.

"Hey." He said smiling, giving his wife a quick kiss as he sat down next to her. "Want to watch some turbo dueling before Claire gets home?" He asked.

"Okay." She replied. Yusei grabbed the television remote off of the table and turned on the television. He then proceeded to change the channel to the turbo dueling channel. The faces, life points, and speed counters of the two duelists currently dueling were being displayed at the corner of the screen while the duel proceeded, and Yusei and Akiza both gasped as they immediately recognized one of the duelists' faces.

It belonged to their daughter, Claire.

"What the..?" Yusei stammered. "I thought she was with her friends."

"She must have left them early." Akiza said, more to herself than to Yusei.

Yusei quickly got up and turned to leave the room. "Where are you going, Yusei?" Akiza asked as he stood up.

He turned back to face Akiza. "To go find our daughter." Yusei answered. "Keep the channel on and keep an eye on Claire and keep me updated on her duel. Don't call Trudge or Mina until we know that it will be completely necessary to do so."

"Alright." Akiza replied. With that, Yusei left the room and Akiza turned her attention back towards the television as she heard Yusei's runner speed off.

_**Back with Claire**_

"I draw!" Claire shouted as she drew her card.

Speed Counters: Claire: 1; Erodan: 2

_Not what I was hoping for, but it'll have to do. _She thought to herself. "I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior! And when he's summoned, he gains a spell counter and gains 300 attack points from that counter!" Claire announced as the red warrior appeared on her side of the field.

Breaker the Magical Warrior: Lv. 4. ATK 1900/DEF 1000

"And now I'll activate Breaker's ability! By removing his spell counter, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field. Say goodbye to your face-down!" Her monster proceeded to swing his sword at her opponent's face-down card, destroying it.

"And now that your Warrior doesn't have his counter, his attack points drop." Erodan pointed out for Claire.

Breaker the Magical Warrior: Lv. 4. ATK 1600/DEF 1000

"Now Breaker! Attack his Fossil Dyna!" Claire commanded to her monster. Erodan's monster shattered into pieces as Breaker's sword sliced it, and Erodan's life points took a small hit.

Claire: 4000; Erodan: 3600

"Hahahaha!" Erodan started to laugh loudly again. "And now you get to pay for your little attack!"

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

"My trap card only activates in the graveyard after having been destroyed by my own opponent's card effect." He started to explain.

_I don't like the sound of that._ Claire thought to herself.

"The trap card you destroyed is called **Ambush from the Grave**. After it has been destroyed by an opponent's card effect while face-down on the field, and then you destroy one of my monsters in battle, this trap card destroys the monster that destroyed mine, and then my monster gets re-summoned to the field in defense mode, except it isn't allowed to switch its battle position." Erodan explained. "Now say goodbye to Breaker, and say hello again to my Fossil Dyna!"

Claire could only watch as her monster was destroyed and Erodan's reappeared. _This isn't good. I've got to think of something, and fast. _"I lay two cards face-down and end my turn!"

"Then I draw!" Erodan announced.

Speed Counters: Claire: 2; Erodan: 3

"Go Thunder King Rai-Oh! Attack her life points directly!" Erodan commanded his monster.

"And with that, I activate my trap card, Defense Draw!" Claire shouted. "The damage I take from this battle becomes zero, and I get to draw another card." Even though Claire didn't take a hit to her life points as she drew her card, she still felt some pain as the attack from Erodan's monster hit her. _That attack.. There's no way I could have actually felt that attack. Unless.. _She thought to herself. "You're a psychic duelist?!" She asked.

"Looks like you figured that out pretty quickly." Her opponent answered. "And for your prize, I lay another face-down. Your turn."

"I draw then."

Speed Counters: Claire: 3; Erodan: 4

_Good, I needed this card. But I also need to know why a psychic duelist I've never met before is after me. _"Since I have three or more speed counters, I can activate the speed spell, Night Beam! With it, I can destroy your face-down card, and you can't activate it in response to my Night Beam!"

Erodan watched as his face-down was destroyed. "It'll take more than that to get ahead of me, girl!"

"And I've got more!" Claire responded. "I summon my Skilled Dark Magician!" _Hopefully I can press for an advantage here._ She thought to herself as her monster appeared on the field.

Skilled Dark Magician: Lv. 4. ATK 1900/DEF 1700

"Go my Magician! Take down Fossil Dyna!" Claire commanded. Erodan could only watch as his monster was destroyed a second time, but he started laughing again. "What now?" She asked.

"You've triggered another trap card's effect. This time, it's **Graveyard Decay**. Like my first trap, it only activates after being destroyed by your card effect while face-down on the field, and then you destroy one of my monsters in battle. But this one will lower the attack and defense points of your monster by the level of my destroyed monster multiplied by two. So your Magician now gets to suffer a loss of 800 attack and defense points!"

Skilled Dark Magician: Lv. 4. ATK 1100/DEF 900

_Not good. I need to defend myself here. _"I lay a face-down and end my turn." Claire stated.

"My turn then."

Speed Counters: Claire: 4; Erodan: 5

"Since I have four or more speed counters, I can activate the speed spell, **Gift of the Curse**! If one of your monsters is suffering an attack reduction due to one of my trap card effects, this spell powers up one of my monsters by half the attack points your monster has lost, until the end phase. So my Thunder King will gain 400 attack points!"

Thunder King Rai-Oh: Lv. 4. ATK 2300/DEF 800

"Thunder King! Attack her Magician!" Erodan commanded.

"I activate the trap card, Dimension Wall!" Claire shouted. "With this card, you take all of the battle damage that I would have taken from this battle!" Claire's life points remained untouched as her monster was destroyed, and her trap protected her by preventing the damage from reaching her as it hit her opponent instead. "And since you took a big enough hit, I believe your speed counters get to suffer." Claire pointed out.

Claire: 4000; Erodan: 2400

Speed Counters: Claire: 4; Erodan: 4

"You'll regret that move, girl! I end my turn." Erodan announced with menace in his voice as his monster's attack points went back down to normal.

Thunder King Rai-Oh: Lv. 4. ATK 1900/DEF 800

_I sure hope he's wrong about that._ "I draw!" Claire shouted.

Speed Counters: Claire: 5; Erodan: 5

"First off, I'll play my Call of the Haunted trap card! With it I can bring my Skilled Dark Magician back to the field." Claire's monster reappeared on her field, but her opponent didn't show any sort of reaction. "Next I play the speed spell, Angel Baton. Since I have four or more speed counters, I can draw two cards, as long as I then send one card to the graveyard. And also, since I played a spell card, my Skilled Dark Magician gains a spell counter."

"Savor those cards well, girl. You'll need everything you can get if you plan to get out of this mess without any incidents." Erodan replied.

"What do you mean by that?! Why are you even after me in the first place?" Claire asked as she played out the effect of her Angel Baton card.

"Let's just say that I was hired to test you. And that anything else that happens to you here is for my pleasure. Hahaha!" Erodan answered, laughing wildly.

_I'd better hurry and end this quickly then. _Claire thought to herself.

_**With Yusei**_

Yusei was still riding his runner around the city, desperately trying to find the duel lane in which his daughter was dueling.

He heard a beeping from his runner, and answered it. "What's new Akiza?"

"Claire is holding out and still has all of her life points, but I'm more worried now." His wife answered. "Her opponent said something about being hired to duel her, and that anything that might happen to her was for is own pleasure."

"Wait. What do you mean by 'anything that might happen to her'? Is she turbo dueling against a psychic duelist?" Yusei asked.

"Yes. And I don't know what cards he still has waiting for her." Akiza answered with worry in her voice.

"Alright. You'd better call Trudge or Mina. Tell them to find where Claire is and have them contact me and let me know where she is if I haven't found her yet, and also warn them they might need an ambulance with them if Claire gets seriously injured by her opponent's psychic powers." Yusei told his wife.

"Okay. I just hope Claire won't need that ambulance." Akiza replied.

"Let's hope so." Yusei agreed, and with that he pressed the button to end the conversation.

_Don't worry Claire. I'm on my way, wherever you are. _Yusei thought as he kept searching.

_**Back with Claire**_

"I play two cards face-down and end my turn!" Claire was shouting.

"My move then!" Erodan replied.

Speed Counters: Claire: 6; Erodan: 6

"Since I have six or more speed counters, and since you have more life points than me while you still have more than 3000 life points, I can play the speed spell, Meteor of Destruction!" Erodan shouted!

_Oh no. This can't be good. _Claire thought to herself.

"This spell card will hit you with 2000 points of direct damage!" He continued to explain, with malice in his voice.

Claire screamed in pain as the meteor slammed down into her duel runner, making her spin out and she struggled to get it back under control. She noticed that her breathing became pained as she coughed up some blood. "Due to you activating your spell card, my Skilled Dark Magician gains a second spell counter." She said with pain in her voice.

Claire: 2000; Erodan: 2400

"Don't worry girl! There's plenty more waiting for you. But for now I'll lay this face-down card and end my turn."

"My turn then." Claire said drawing her card.

Speed Counters: Claire: 7; Erodan: 7

_I hope he doesn't have anything more like that Meteor waiting for me._ "I play the speed spell, Wonder Wand! Until the end phase, this spell will give my Skilled Dark Magician an extra 500 attack points. And since another spell has been played, my Magician now gains his third spell counter." She explained, grasping her chest as it ached in pain as she spoke.

Skilled Dark Magician: Lv. 4. ATK 2400/DEF 1700

"Go my Magician. Take down his Thunder King." She commanded her monster. Erodan's monster shattered to pieces, and his points took a small hit.

Claire: 2000; Erodan: 1900

"Tsk, tsk. When will you learn, girl? I play my trap card, **Wrath of the Fallen**." Erodan announced. "When one of my monsters is destroyed in battle, you take damage equal to my destroyed monster's attack points!"

Claire screamed again in pain as Erodan's trap card attacked her, making her spin out again and she struggled even harder to get it back under control.

Claire: 100; Erodan: 1900

_I don't know how much more of this I can take..._ Claire thought, growing weak from Erodan's attacks.

_**Again with Yusei**_

Yusei was still driving around looking for his daughter. Luckily for him, Trudge had contacted him a few moments ago and gave him Claire's location, and told him that he and Sector Security would deal with her opponent after the duel ended, and they were bringing the ambulance as a precaution.

Yusei looked around alertly as he heard a loud scream that sounded like it was coming from a young girl, and he looked downwards to his right as he saw a flash of light on the duel lane below him. As the flash went away, he saw a monster that he recognized immediately.

_That's Skilled Dark Magician! _He thought._ The only person who I know that has that card is Claire. It's got to be her! And she sounded like she was in a enormous amount of pain._

Yusei was able to confirm his thoughts as he looked closer and saw the purplish-red duel runner that belonged to his daughter.

"Claire!"

_**Back with Claire**_

Claire looked around as she heard someone calling her name. She then saw the red duel runner that belonged to Yusei a short way behind her on the lane above her.

_What's Dad doing here? _She thought to herself. _Whatever his reason, I'm glad he's here._

"Hold on Claire, I'm coming!" Yusei shouted as he increased his runner's speed to launch himself from the lane that he was driving on to land on the duel lane next to Claire's runner. He noticed that Claire was coughing up blood. "Claire! Are you alright?" He asked, worried.

"I will be, Dad. After I finish this duel." Claire said weakly.

"Really? Let's see how you'll do that, girl." Erodan taunted, not believing Claire would live up to her claim.

"With pleasure." Claire continued. "Since I have more than three speed counters, I can activate the speed spell, **Magician's Greater Tricks**. When I take damage due to an opponent's card effect after one of my attacks, even though it's the battle phase, this spell lets me activate the ability of a spellcaster-type monster that I control right now if it would currently be able to do so during one of my main phases. So since my Skilled Dark Magician has three spell counters on him, I can now tribute him in order to summon my Dark Magician from my deck!" Claire explained with interruptions of coughing up blood while explaining her card's effect, and her purple armored magician appeared on her side of the field.

Dark Magician: Lv. 7. ATK 2500/DEF 2100

"No. It can't be..." Erodan gasped.

"Great job! Now finish him." Yusei said.

Claire barely heard her father, her vision starting to get blurry. "Dark Magician! Finish him off now with your Dark Magic Attack!" Claire commanded. As her magician launched his attack, she started to get dizzy and her runner started wobbling as Claire was quickly losing grip on consciousness. She was so exhausted by the duel, she didn't even hear her opponent yell out in pain.

_Did Claire just use her psychic powers in that last attack? I can't think of anything else right now that would cause her opponent to yell out like that, but she never resorts to using her powers in a duel. _Yusei thought to himself.

Claire: 100; Erodan: 0

Claire's attack made Erodan crash his runner as it came to a stop steaming when his life points hit zero. Yusei stopped his runner as he saw Trudge arrive with Sector Security and watched them arrest the defeated psychic duelist, while Trudge informed Yusei that the ambulance was close behind.

Claire, however, didn't really notice anything that happened after she declared her attack as she lost consciousness while she was still driving her runner. And since she couldn't control her runner while she was unconcious, it toppled over and she fell out of her runner and skidded across the ground, tearing up her jacket and jeans, and eventually came to a still. A piece of her runner landed barely on her right leg's ankle, almost crushing it, as pieces of the runner broke apart as it crashed further away from Claire.

Only Yusei at first seemed to hear the sound of a runner crashing, and he quickly turned around and saw a couple hundred yards away that Claire was on the ground, with a piece of her runner on top of one of her legs, with a few other pieces scattered nearby from the runner. "No! Claire!"

_**Meanwhile, in another part of the city**_

A man was laughing wildly as the turbo duel he was watching finished.

"Would you like anything sir?" A woman's voice asked.

"No thanks." The man replied as he brought his laughter down. "I'm more satisfied right now than I have been in quite a while. Feel free to take the rest of the night off."

"As you wish, Sayer." The woman replied, bowed, and then left the room.

_Looks like Erodan was right when he said I wouldn't be disappointed. He did much better than I expected._ Sayer thought as he broke out laughing again. _It has begun. Revenge will soon be mine, Fudos!_

* * *

Claire: Wow. I really don't like you right now.

Icy Cold Fox: And why's that?

Claire: Do I really need to explain myself?

Icy Cold Fox: I guess not.

Claire: I swear if you...

Icy Cold Fox: Don't worry Claire, I wouldn't go THAT far with my own characters.

Yusei: I know we're all worried about Claire here, but aren't you forgetting something?

Icy Cold Fox: I was getting there, Yusei. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter, and please review. Any reviews are appreciated, but kind reviews are always nicer. Schedule granted, I will try and have the next chapter or two up soon. If I get more reviews than what I'm expecting, then I'll do my best to update sooner.


	5. Shattered Hearts and Broken Bones

Claire: Welcome back, dear readers!

Yusei: Isn't it Icy Cold Fox's job to open up the introduction of the chapter to the readers?

Claire: I think so, but he told me that he was sick, so I volunteered to do the job for him.

Akiza: That's nice of you to do so.

Claire: Yeah, I guess it is.

Yusei: Is something on your mind, Claire? You don't sound sure of that.

Claire: No need to worry, I'm sure of it. Although I will admit that I'm still pretty mad at him for the previous chapter. But ignoring that I just said that, on behalf of the author, Icy Cold Fox does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters. He only owns the storyline and the characters he created, like me. He also says that he hopes you'll enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 4

Shattered Hearts and Broken Bones

Yusei rushed quickly over to Claire's side, ignoring Trudge when he asked what was wrong before he turned around to see for himself.

"Tell that ambulance to get here fast!" Trudge ordered as soon as he saw that Claire was on the ground.

Immediately as Yusei reached his daughter, he quickly and carefully pulled the broken piece of her runner off of her ankle, relieved to see that it wasn't flattened. He noticed a small puddle of blood on the ground underneath her left arm, and he lifted it and saw that the underside of her left jacket sleeve had been completely torn off and there was a gash on her arm, and it was still bleeding.

Yusei carefully set Claire's arm back down in a position where he hoped it would bleed the least, and he proceeded to pull off her helmet as gently as he could. Claire groaned in pain as he took off her helmet.

"Shh. It'll be okay." _At least I hope so. _Yusei told his daughter softly as he thought to himself.

Claire groaned more as she barely opened her eyes. "D-Dad...?" She started to say, though weakly. She had manged to regain consciousness for a few moments, but it didn't last as she fell unconscious again a couple moments later.

"Claire..." Yusei carefully sat Claire up in his arms and held her head to his chest, softly stroking her hair. Tears started to fall down from his face.

He barely noticed as the moment quickly went by and he heard someone talking to him. "Sir, we need to get her out of here so that she can get help." Yusei was startled when he heard the paramedic's voice. He hadn't noticed that the ambulance had arrived. He carefully set Claire back down so that the paramedics could carefully get her onto a stretcher, and then onto the ambulance. When they were finished, Yusei told them to go on ahead, that he'd be down at the hospital shortly. The paramedics left without another question.

"Yusei? Do you want us to contact Akiza for you?" He heard Trudge ask him after the ambulance left.

"No thanks Trudge, I'll contact her myself." Yusei replied. "Do me a favor though, and lock down this part of the duel lane."

"What for?" Trudge asked.

"I want to clean up the wreckage of Claire's duel runner myself." He replied again.

Trudge gave a Yusei a nod, indicating to Yusei that he'd grant the favor. Figuring that he'd want to be alone for a couple minutes, Trudge went back to where the other Sector Security officers were still standing.

As Trudge walked off, Yusei pulled out his cellphone and dialed his home number, hoping that Akiza was still there to answer it. It rang a couple of times before he heard Akiza's voice on the other line. "Hello, Yusei? What's going on? The duel's signal was disrupted when that psychic duelist played that Meteor of Destruction." He noticed that she sounded incredibly worried.

Yusei sighed. "Nothing good. Claire went unconscious after declaring her final attack and crashed her runner. The runner is badly thrashed. One of the pieces that broke off of it landed on her right ankle. It didn't flatten her ankle thankfully, but I'm sure she has at least a broken ankle. And she also had a large gash on her left arm from where she had skid across the ground after falling out of her runner when she fell unconscious." He noticed that he had barely managed to keep his voice steady as he told his wife about Claire's wreck.

"Where is she right now?" Akiza asked, sounding like she had started crying as Yusei relayed to her what had happened to their daughter.

"The ambulance Trudge brought is taking her to the hospital as we speak." Yusei answered. "You should head on down to the hospital right now. Claire needs at least one of us there right now." He told her.

"What do you mean? What about you?" She asked.

"I asked Trudge to put the duel lane in lock-down for now. I'm going to clean up the wreckage of Claire's runner, and then I'll head to the hospital." Yusei answered.

"Okay. I'll see you at the hospital later then." Akiza replied, and she hung up the phone. Yusei held his phone in his hand down at his side after hanging up with Akiza. He looked at the wrecked duel runner and its pieces that were lying around. Tears were still streaming down his face. He took a deep breath, and dialed another number on his phone.

"Hello?" An Australian-accented voice asked on the other line. "This had better be good Yusei."

"Jack, now isn't the time to start acting hostile." Yusei replied, barely keeping his voice steady.

"Well, what is it then?" Jack asked.

"I need you to come down to one of the duel lanes. And bring your trailer with you." Yusei answered.

"Why? What's going on?" Jack asked again.

"Claire was just in a turbo duel with a psychic duelist, and she crashed her runner pretty badly right after the duel's conclusion." He answered again.

"Oh. Well, that wasn't exactly what I was expecting to hear." Jack commented. There was a silence between the two for a brief moment. "Don't worry, I'll be there shortly Yusei."

"Alright. I'll let Trudge know you're coming since he has the duel lane on lock-down right now." Yusei said, hanging up the phone.

After informing Trudge of Jack's incoming arrival, Yusei went and sat down next to the main body of Claire's wrecked duel runner. Feeling that he had held it back long enough, he started to let himself cry without resistance.

_**With Claire**_

Claire barely opened her eyes as she came into consciousness again. She couldn't tell what was going on, but she could barely hear that an ambulance siren was blaring. Even though she could barely feel it, she could indeed tell that she was in a moving vehicle, and that she had an oxygen mask on.

"Mom... Dad..." Claire barely said, though not loud enough for any of the paramedics to hear her. She managed to stay conscious for a couple moments longer before she closed her eyes again as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

_**Back with Yusei**_

A few minutes had gone by, and Yusei started to wonder where Jack was. He felt that Jack was taking too long to get there. His attention was diverted as he started to hear commotion among the Sector Security officers blocking the duel lane, and he heard an Australian-accented voice yelling at the officers. _Finally. But where's Trudge? There shouldn't be any commotion, unless if Trudge forgot to tell the other officers that Jack was coming. _Yusei thought.

As if on cue, Yusei's thoughts were proven correct as Trudge came running up to the officers that were blocking Jack, who was still yelling at the other officers. "Stand down! Yusei is expecting him." He told the officers, and they let Jack through, who stopped his vehicle a short distance from Yusei. "Well, isn't this pretty?" Jack commented as he got out of his car. Yusei noticed that Jack had the trailer that he asked for hooked up the to the back of Jack's car.

"You made it." Yusei commented. "Help me get Claire's runner into the trailer." Yusei instructed.

Jack nodded, and they started getting the smaller pieces of the wreckage into the trailer first. After spending a few minutes doing that, they finished gathering up all the runner's broken off pieces into the trailer, and they started to carefully push the main body of the runner into the trailer, which Yusei was thankful that it was lucky that the runner still had its tires. As they were pushing, Yusei saw a card fall off of the runner to the ground. After they got the runner into the trailer, Yusei went back to pick up the card.

Yusei started to cry some more as he saw that the card he picked up had been damaged a little bit; Claire's Dark Magician. _Why did this have to happen, Claire?_ He thought to himself, holding on to the card he got for her.

After he got himself under control, Yusei told Trudge that he and the Sector Security officers could go now if they wanted since he and Jack were done cleaning up the wreckage. After they left a couple moments later, Yusei went back and recovered the rest of Claire's cards from her duel runner, which to Yusei's relief remained unharmed. _At least that's good that the majority of her cards are okay. And Dark Magician isn't too badly damaged, so she can still use it. Although I don't think she'd trade it for a better conditioned one anyways. _Yusei tried to smile at the thought, but couldn't find the will to do so.

"Yusei!" Jack said, breaking Yusei of his thoughts. "What do you want to do now that we're done getting the runner in the trailer?" He asked.

Yusei thought for a moment. "Call Kalin and Crow and let them know what happened, and that they can meet us at the hospital if they want." Yusei answered. "And before we head to the hospital, we should get Claire's runner back to my garage so that I can fix it later."

"Why take it to your garage when we can fix it at the shop?" Jack questioned him.

"One, the shop is closed right now." Yusei answered. "And two, I would much rather fix it in my garage on any of my spare time not being spent with Claire in the hospital rather than have her runner waiting in line to be fixed in the shop."

Jack nodded, understanding Yusei's reasons, and questioned him no further. Yusei put his helmet on and mounted his duel runner. He took off at a pace where Jack could follow him a short way behind without breaking the speed limit. Yusei contacted both Kalin and Crow and told them what happened as he and Jack brought the runner to the Fudo household's garage.

Yusei told Jack he could leave the trailer there and meet him at the hospital while Yusei would get Claire's wrecked runner into the garage. Jack rejected Yusei's offer, saying that Yusei was still not completely stable emotionally, and shouldn't leave his side. Knowing he wouldn't be able to change Jack's mind, Yusei let Jack help him get Claire's runner and its broken pieces into the corner of the garage where he would have enough room to fix it.

They left as soon as Yusei closed the door to the garage. Jack left the empty trailer behind in the Fudo's driveway saying he could come back for it later in a day or two. Yusei didn't object to Jack's decision, as he was now focused on getting to the hospital as soon as possible. _Claire._ He thought to himself as he drove his runner with Jack not far behind him. _I hope you're okay.._

_**At the Hospital**_

Akiza was sitting on a bench outside of the operating room where Claire was undergoing surgery. The doctors had told her that Claire was in critical condition and needed surgery right away.

She had been sitting there for about forty-five minutes when she noticed Kalin and Crow rush in. "Akiza." They addressed. She didn't say anything to them, but nodded to them to acknowledge their arrival as she looked at the operating room sign that was glowing to indicate the surgery currently being undertaken. Neither Kalin or Crow said anything more as they sat down near Akiza.

_They aren't who I was expecting to see first, but they're better than nobody. _Akiza thought to herself. She was expecting her parents to be the first to get there, as she had called them immediately after she finished talking to Yusei. _Then again, they did say that they were a little busy right now, but they'd get here as soon as they could. _She thought again, reminding herself of what her parents told her. She then started to get a little worried. _Where is Yusei? He said he would be getting her runner to the house with Jack's help, and that was almost an hour ago. _Akiza put her head in her hands, getting a worried look from Kalin and Crow, but neither said anything, and she didn't seem notice either of them.

About half an hour later of waiting, she sat up quickly as she faintly heard the familiar sound of Yusei's duel runner. She saw him rush through the emergency room door a minute later with Jack following him.

"Akiza." Yusei greeted, sitting down next to his wife. "Where is she?"

Akiza looked toward the operating room. Yusei saw the sign was glowing, knowing that meant a surgery was currently being undertaken, and he knew that Claire had to be in there.

"Yusei. What if our little girl doesn't make it?" Akiza asked, starting to cry.

"Don't say that." Yusei told Akiza, putting his arms around her. "She'll make it. She's a strong girl." He tried to reassure her as well as himself.

"Do you want us to get you anything? We're going to go get something to drink." Kalin offered as he and Crow stood up.

Yusei looked at his wife, who shook her head. "Not right now. But thanks for offering, Kalin." He replied. They walked off, and Yusei turned his attention towards the glowing operating room sign.

_Claire. Please come out of there safe and sound. _Yusei thought to himself.

_**A couple hours later**_

Yusei and Akiza were still sitting at the bench outside of the operating room. The sign was still glowing.

Yusei had told Jack, Crow, and Kalin they could go if they wanted and that he would let them know when Claire got out of surgery. They all refused at first, but had eventually left, and Yusei gave his thanks to Crow and Kalin for keeping Akiza company while they were waiting for Yusei to arrive, and he also gave his thanks to Jack for helping Yusei with Claire's runner.

Akiza's parents had called Yusei on his cellphone a little bit ago, saying that they were running later than they thought they would be. Akiza seemed to be disappointed when he told her, but she understood that her parents had a busy schedule.

After having cried for about a half an hour straight after Jack, Crow, and Kalin had left, and receiving the call from Akiza's parents, Yusei told Akiza that she should rest, and he would wake her if something changed. She was reluctant to do so, but she did eventually.

Yusei looked towards the glowing operating room sign. _Claire. I hope you're still okay in there._

About an hour later, Yusei heard footsteps approach him, but he took no attention to them as his attention was still towards the operating room. "Hello, Yusei." A couple of voices quietly greeted.

Yusei was nearly startled as he recognized the voice of Akiza's parents. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Izinski." Yusei replied, turning to face them.

"How is she?" Akiza's father, Hideo, asked.

"I don't know." Yusei answered honestly, sighing heavily. "She's still in surgery."

"The poor dear. I hope she'll be alright." Akiza's mother, Setsuko, said quietly.

_Me too._ Yusei thought. Yusei gently woke Akiza up to let her know that her parents were there. Akiza reluctantly fell back asleep after talking with her parents for a few minutes. They had suggested she should rest some more since she still looked tired. Yusei offered for them to sit on the bench with them next to Akiza, which they accepted without hesitation with Hideo saying that they're weren't going to leave without knowing if their granddaughter was going to be okay.

Yusei let his attention go back to the glowing operating room sign as Akiza's parents sat down next to Akiza, engaging in a quiet conversation with each other.

_**A couple more hours later**_

It was after 1 in the morning. Yusei was now the only one of the four there that was awake, watching the operating room sign. It was still glowing. Akiza was still sleeping in Yusei's arms, and her parents had dozed off not too long ago. Yusei promised them that he would wake them up if something came up.

Yawning, Yusei decided to close his eyes for a minute. It took him a little bit of effort to reopen his eyes since he was getting to be incredibly tired, but he didn't want to be responsible for not waking everyone up if he had fallen asleep. As he opened his eyes, he saw the operating room sign start to dim out. He nudged Akiza's father awake first, who objected at first until Yusei pointed him towards the sign. He then proceeded to wake Akiza up as her father woke her mother.

They all stood up as they saw a surgeon come out of the operating room, still wearing a mask and carrying a clipboard. "Mr. and Mrs. Fudo?" The surgeon asked.

"That's us." Yusei and Akiza said simultaneously, stepping forward. "How is she?" They asked.

"She's still in critical condition, but she will be okay." The surgeon started. "She wasn't breathing well in the ambulance on the way here and we had on oxygen mask on her then. She is breathing fine now, but we're keeping the mask on for now as a precaution. A couple of her ribs are broken, and a few others are cracked. Her right ankle is broken from that piece of her duel runner that landed on it. She must have hit her heard pretty hard when she had her accident, because she also has a concussion." He informed them. Yusei was shocked at hearing the last part, as he didn't recall seeing anything wrong with his daughter's head when he pulled off her helmet several hours ago.

Yusei felt Akiza's hand tighten on his, which made it obvious for him that she wasn't liking what she was hearing. "And the gash on her arm?" He asked.

"Ah yes." The surgeon continued. "It took about thirty-six stitches, but the gash on her left arm is sewn up, as well as a couple of other much smaller gashes that she had. She lost a lot of blood before then, however. She is lucky that we were barely able to get her enough of her type, otherwise she could have been at risk of never being able to fully recover, or even death."

Yusei felt his wife's hand tighten even more, still clearly indicating that she was not liking what she was hearing at all. "If you thought not having enough blood would be an issue, why didn't you think about asking one of us?" Yusei asked. "I happen to have the same blood type as Claire."

"We were considering to ask one of you. But when we discovered we had enough blood for your daughter, we didn't think we would bother you." The surgeon answered.

Yusei didn't ask any more questions. He didn't want to risk getting his wife any more upset than she already was. He was also slightly worried that if she tightened her grip any further, he would be in danger of having his hand broken in her grip.

"So can we stay the night with her?" Akiza asked the surgeon.

"Yes, but only immediate family; I apologize, but I have no control over what the protocol dictates. But I'm going to assume these two are Claire's grandparents?" He asked, referring to Akiza's parents. After getting a nod from them, he continued. "You're all set then. Claire will be in room 4698 when you are ready to go see her. She'll likely be out for a while, as we had to give her a lot of anesthesia during her surgery. And her clothes are currently having the blood washed out of them, and should be ready for you to pick up in the morning."

"Alright." Yusei and Akiza replied, and with that the surgeon left them alone.

"I'm so glad she's okay." Akiza said, facing her husband.

"Me too." Yusei replied. He turned to face Akiza's parents. "Why don't we all go see Claire now that she is out of her surgery?" He asked, getting no objections from Akiza or her parents. With that settled, they all headed for the young girl's room.

* * *

Claire: And it looks like that that's all Icy Cold Fox had for this chapter.

Akiza: It's still nice that you did his job for him since he is sick and all.

Claire: Yeah. I'm just glad that he didn't kill me in this chapter. *sees Icy Cold Fox walk in* What are you doing up? I thought you were resting?

Icy Cold Fox: Of course I wouldn't kill you; you're my main character. And I was resting, but I wanted to thank you, Claire, for taking care of my duties for me.

Claire: Oh. You're welcome. But you should probably get back to bed and rest before Akiza materializes Rose Tentacles to make you go back to bed.

Icy Cold Fox: I will, but I want to take care of this last bit, since you've done the rest for me already.

Claire: As much as I would like to see you do so, you really should probably go now, before Akiza sees you're still here.

Icy Cold Fox: Alright, fine. *leaves*

Akiza: Was that Icy Cold Fox that just left?

Claire: Yes, it was. Don't worry, he's going back to bed.

Akiza: If you say so. Oh; didn't he have something to wanted to ask the readers?

Claire: Ah, I almost forgot about that. Let me find the card he wrote it on. *looks around* Here it is. It appears to be a mini challenge, asking the readers to see if they can find the reference to the Dark Magician in the chapter, obviously not including when it was clearly mentioned. He says that he'll give the correct answer at the introduction to the next chapter, along with the name of the first reviewer to get the answer correct, if there is one, when the next chapter gets updated.

Akiza: Well, good luck to them then.

Claire: Indeed. Since that has been taken care of now, Icy Cold Fox hopes you'll review. He appreciates any kind of reviews, but kind ones are always nicer. He also says he hopes to update pretty soon when he starts feeling better and after getting some reviews. Get your friends to read and see if they can figure out the challenge he left you! See you all next time!


	6. Out of Commission

Icy Cold Fox: I am SO sorry I kept you all waiting for so long!

Claire: Where have you been this past month and a half?

Icy Cold Fox: I was really busy with school. And then once school ended for the year, which I'm now done with high school, I was busy with things at home. Also, I had a little bit of writer's block throughout parts of this chapter.

Claire: Uh-huh, sure. So you're graduated now? Congratulations.

Icy Cold Fox: Thank you, Claire. And for those who were wondering about the answer to last chapter's mini-challenge, the reference to Dark Magician, excluding when he was clearly mentioned, was Claire's room number, 4698. Those who know the real cards, each card has an 8-digit code on the bottom-left corner, and Dark Magician's code is "4698"6414.

Claire: Wow, I never would have thought of that. So should I even ask what this chapter is about?

Icy Cold Fox: You can, but you'll get the same answer as always.

Claire: Oh fine.

Icy Cold Fox: I don't own any of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters. I just own the characters that I've created and the storyline. Enjoy! And again, I apologize for keeping you all waiting for this update.

Chapter 5

Out of Commission

Yusei went with Akiza and her parents to the room where Claire would be staying. Even though he was still quite distraught from his daughter being in that horrible crash, he couldn't help but feel relieved that she would be okay. He could tell by how much his wife had calmed down, as well as her parents, that they were also relieved.

The four of them entered Claire's room silently. Yusei and Akiza sat down in the chairs next to her bed while Akiza's parents sat down on the couch near the window.

Akiza almost broke out in tears once she saw how injured Claire was, but Yusei took one of her hands in his and that was enough to keep Akiza from crying for long. She felt more hurt seeing Claire like this than when she found out Claire had been in her accident.

Claire had bandaging on her left arm where she had needed the stitches. She also had a thin layer of gauze wrapped around her head, and her right ankle was propped up and was in a cast on seeing as it was broken. As a precaution, the doctors had put an oxygen mask on her since she had trouble breathing in the ambulance. The doctors also decided to put her on a heart monitor as another precaution.

Even though Claire was sleeping peacefully at the moment, Yusei couldn't stand to see his daughter banged up like this. He was trying hard to fight back tears.

"This is all my fault." He said quietly to himself more than the others in the room. "I should have tried to stop that psychic duelist." He curled his hand into a fist and slammed it hard into his knee. He let a couple tears fall as he blamed himself for his daughter's accident.

"It isn't your fault, Yusei." Akiza said to him quietly while trying to stay calm herself. "And it isn't Claire's fault either."

Yusei remained silent. _She's right, I shouldn't blame myself._ He thought to himself. _But I wish I had done more to help Claire._

Akiza let out a sigh with a hint of a yawn. "Maybe we should get a little bit of rest." She suggested. "It's been a long night, we could all use it." She looked at her parents and got a nod of agreement from her father, while Yusei remained silent.

Akiza's parents fell asleep rather quickly. Shortly after her parents had dozen off, Akiza looked at Yusei and could tell that he was still holding back tears. "Get some rest, Yusei." She told her husband quietly. "You need your energy as much as Claire needs does."

Yusei let out a sigh. "I can't sleep. I just can't help but blame myself for not doing more to help her."

"You did everything you could." Akiza tried to reassure him. "Right now, she needs both of us to stay strong for her. You can't do that for her while you're blaming yourself for her accident."

Yusei stayed silent for a moment to think. "You're right." He said after a few short moments. "I guess I'm just more upset by this than I thought I was. It hurts me so much to see our daughter like this." He admitted.

"I know. It hurts me too. But let's get some sleep for now." Akiza told him, and then slowly drifted off to sleep after leaning her head against Yusei's shoulder. Yusei put his arm around his wife as he stayed up a little bit longer looking at Claire, watching her sleep and also worrying about her, but eventually he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

_**Elsewhere in the city**_

"You called for me, sir?" A male's voice that sounded no older than sixteen asked.

"Yes." Another man's voice replied. "I want you to keep an eye on the new friend that Erodan made. You might have a hard time doing so while she's in that hospital, but I don't care how you do it, so long as she doesn't become too suspicious. Understand?"

"Yes sir, Sayer."

"Good. Here's the key to an apartment that you can stay in so that you don't have to risk drawing attention to the Arcadia Movement at the end of each day." Sayer handed him a key as he spoke. "Now go grab whatever you think you'll need and see to it that you accomplish your task." Sayer commanded, and the teen left without another word. _You may have won the first battle, Fudo._ He thought to himself. _But I will win this war._

_**Back at the hospital**_

It was still dark in the room when Claire opened her eyes. She was barely able to open them seeing as she was still exhausted and sore. _W-what happened? Where am I?_ She though to herself as she tried to look around the room. She saw her parents right next to her, and her grandparents were on a couch near a window. _Am I... In a hospital?_ She thought to herself. She answered her question when she saw that her left arm was bandaged and her right ankle was propped up and in a cast.

A nurse came in while Claire was still looking around the room. "I'm surprised to see you awake." The nurse said quietly, getting Claire's attention.

"W-what happened to me?" Claire struggled to ask.

"You were in a bad accident. According to what I heard, you crashed your duel runner pretty badly." The nurse replied.

"What kind of injuries did I get?" Claire asked nervously.

"I think your parents should be the ones to tell you when they wake up. It'll be harder to hear it from them rather than me, but it wouldn't feel right for me to tell you. You should probably get back to sleep now. You're still in a critical condition and you need your rest." The nurse instructed. Claire reluctantly, but quickly, fell back asleep as the nurse did a couple of quick tests before leaving.

_**Later that morning**_

Yusei woke with a yawn. He noticed that Akiza wasn't in the chair next to his, so he figured she must have woken up and gone to get something to eat. He also saw that Akiza's parents had gotten up as well since they were no longer on the couch near the window. He did see, however, that Claire was still sleeping on the bed. _I hope she's feeling okay._ He thought to himself as he got out of the chair to stretch his legs.

"Looks like someone's finally awake." Yusei heard his wife's voice say, catching him off guard as he quickly turned to face her.

"You spooked me." Yusei said as Akiza came in the room.

"Sorry." Akiza said with a small giggle that was cut short when she looked towards their daughter. "She's still out then?" She asked.

"Yeah. I just woke up a couple minutes ago, and I don't see any sign that Claire might have woken up." He informed. "So where did your parents go?" He asked.

"They woke up shortly before I did. They told me when I woke up that they had some things that they needed to do, but they also said that they'd come back and visit when they could." Akiza answered.

"Has anyone called asking about Claire?" Yusei asked.

"Yeah. Misty called shortly after I left the room to ask if anything has happened with Claire. I told her what we know, and I would imagine she's informed the others by now." She replied. Yusei nodded in agreement as they sat back down in the chairs besides Claire's bed.

A couple of hours passed when Yusei and Akiza saw someone come in the room. It was Kalin and Misty along with their children, Keith and Rebecca. The younger two of the group went to the couch to give the adult's a minute to talk.

"How is she?" Misty asked.

"The same." Akiza answered. "She's been sleeping all day."

"Well, you did say the doctors gave her a lot of anesthesia. I'm not surprised to see that she's asleep." Kalin replied getting a nod of agreement from Yusei.

After a couple minutes of chatting, the adults left the room, leaving the Kessler siblings with Claire. They took Yusei and Akiza's spots in the chairs by Claire's bed.

"I wish she'd wake up already." Keith muttered.

"She needs all the rest she can get. She's been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours." Rebecca commented. Keith didn't say anything back as they looked at Claire. They both felt terrible seeing their best friend out of commission in that hospital bed.

Rebecca's eyes suddenly started widening. She saw that Claire's eyelids started moving and they slowly opened. "You're awake." She heard her brother almost yell.

"Huh? W-what?" Claire mumbled weakly. Rebecca could tell that Claire was still exhausted. "Keith? Rebecca? When did you guys get here?" She asked.

"Just a few minutes ago." Rebecca replied while eying Keith, warning him not to get too excited. "How do you feel?" She asked.

Claire took a deep breath before answering. "I've been better. I don't think I've ever felt this sore or exhausted before."

The Kessler children talked to Claire for a few minutes before the adults came back in the room. "Claire. You're awake." Akiza said joyfully, but being careful to not be too loud. Keith and Rebecca went back over to the room's couch so that Claire's parents could have the chairs by their daughter's bed. Kalin and Misty stood off to the side of the room, insisting that they don't mind standing.

"Mom, dad? W-what happened?" Claire asked weakly.

"You wrecked your duel runner right after your duel with Erodan." Yusei answered, carefully taking his daughter's hand in his. He looked at Akiza, getting a nod from her indicating to him that she wouldn't get upset by hearing the description of Claire's accident again. "You passed out after you declared the final attack, and without you controlling your runner, it toppled over. You fell out of your runner and skidded across the ground, which gave you a nasty cut on your left arm, as well as other cuts along your body. You needed 36 stitches on your left arm, and a few more throughout the rest of the bad cuts. Your duel runner broke into a few pieces as you crashed, one of which landed on your ankle, breaking it. The doctors said you also got a concussion and a couple of broken ribs, and a few cracked ones."

Claire listened as her father described what happened to her. "Wow." She commented after her father finished. "I was really in that bad of a wreck?" She asked, getting a nod from Yusei. "So what happened to Erodan?"

"Well.." Yusei started. "Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if he's in a hospital as well."

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

"When you declared your final attack, it was clear you had a weak grasp on consciousness. That being said, your psychic powers kicked in when you declared for Dark Magician to attack, and it actually hit him, giving you the win, but also causing Erodan to crash as well. It's a safe bet that he is in The Facility's medical center right now."

Claire cringed as she listened to her father tell her about what happened to her opponent. Even though Erodan was trying to hurt her, she felt guilty for hurting him. She hated to use her psychic powers in a duel, even though she knew it wasn't her fault she was barely conscious when it happened.

_So the runner is wrecked and there were quite a bit of injuries._ Claire thought to herself. She didn't want to hear about injuries anymore, so she decided she would change part of the subject. "Did my cards make it out of there okay?" She asked, taking an unnoticeable gulp.

Yusei felt a wave of sadness hit him. _She'll have to find out sooner or later, so I may as well let her know now, that way it won't distress her too much right now seeing as she's so exhausted. _He thought to himself. He didn't like the thought, but he knew it was true.

"All of your cards are accounted for, none are missing." He started. He took a brief moment to hold back a couple tears before continuing. "Almost all of them went through the wreck unharmed." He admitted with a sad tone in his voice.

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

Yusei sighed deeply. "Your Dark Magician card was damaged a bit in the wreck." Deep down inside, Yusei felt torn, like he had been in the wreck as well.

Claire didn't respond. She didn't know what to say; what could she say? Dark Magician was her favorite card. Her father had gotten that card. And now it was damaged after having going through that wreck with her. She started to feel a little sick inside as she imagined how her father must be feeling, and she closed her eyes for a second.

"You should get some more rest." Akiza said after a moment. "You still look very tired. You need all of the strength you can get." She got a small nod from her daughter, who reluctantly went back to sleep a few moments later. The Kesslers left shortly after Claire went back to sleep, leaving Yusei and Akiza to watch their resting daughter in peace.

After a while of sitting in silence, Yusei stood up stretching his legs, but he didn't sit back down afterward.

"Is something wrong?" Akiza asked her husband.

"I was going to go see about starting repairs on Claire's duel runner. That is, if you don't mind staying here with Claire by yourself for a little bit." Yusei answered. He didn't want to leave either of them, but he figured that the sooner he could get Claire's duel runner repaired, the better.

"I don't mind." Akiza answered honestly. "If Claire wakes up before you get back, I'll be sure to let her know where you went." After getting a nod from Yusei, Akiza was left alone in the room with a sleeping Claire as Yusei departed.

In truth, Akiza didn't want her husband to leave, but she knew that he wouldn't want to wait for Claire to get released from the hospital to start on repairs. She also knew that if Yusei didn't start repairs before Claire left the hospital, Claire would be impatient to start dueling again, and would have to wait longer to do any turbo dueling. Akiza wasn't an expert on duel runners, but she knew just enough to guess that it would take at least three or four months for Claire's duel runner to be repaired, judging from the descriptions she has heard.

Shortly after Yusei left, Akiza had been sitting with her head in hands for a few minutes when she heard some footsteps stop. She looked up and saw that a teenage boy no older than sixteen that she didn't recognize was standing at the doorway to Claire's room. "Can I help you?" She asked him, not trying to sound intimidating.

"I-is this the girl that was in that duel runner wreck?" He asked nervously.

"Yes. How did you know?" Akiza asked him, feeling a little suspicious.

"I saw the wreck." He admitted. "I was going to help, but after seeing Sector Security and the ambulance arrive almost right away, I thought I would just be getting in their way if I tried to help."

Akiza felt her suspicion leave her as the teenager explained himself. She felt a little bad for him that he had wanted to help, but felt unable to. "Do you have a name?" She asked him.

"You can call me Austin, miss." He replied.

_He seems very polite for his age._ Akiza thought to herself. "Would you like to come sit down?" She offered.

"I don't see why not." He answered before he came in. He sat down in the empty chair and scooted over slightly to give Akiza more space. To Akiza, he seemed to be smarter than she anticipated. _He's very polite, but doesn't entirely trust a stranger; he's definitely smarter than one would think._ "So what's her name? If you don't mind me asking."

"Her name is Claire." She answered. "And I'm her mother, Akiza."

Akiza noticed that she seemed to get Austin's attention. "Akiza? As in Akiza Fudo? Wife of the turbo dueling champion, Yusei Fudo?" He asked her.

"Uh, yeah. I'm that Akiza." She replied.

"Wow. It's an honour to meet you. I'm sorry that you're daughter is in this condition." He commented.

Austin talked with Akiza for a little while before he told the mother that it was getting late and that he had to get going. He left the room, but took his time leaving the hospital. _Claire is the one that Sayer wants me to watch? I don't see why though. After talking with Akiza about her, I don't think that Claire seems like someone that Sayer should be worried about. _Austin kept these thoughts to himself as he left the hospital and wandered off.

After Austin left, Akiza felt a little bit better. She enjoyed having his company, even though they had just only met. She liked that he seemed to be very polite. She looked at Claire, noticing that her sleep was undisturbed throughout the entire conversation that Akiza had with Austin. A few moments had passed when Yusei came back in the room, telling her that repairs can be started on Claire's runner within the next couple of days.

With that bit of good news, Akiza failed to hold back a yawn and leaned her head on Yusei's shoulder and fell asleep. Yusei put his arm around Akiza, staying up a little longer before falling asleep himself.

* * *

Icy Cold Fox: Well, that's it for this chapter. I hope it was worth the wait for you readers.

Yusei: Well, you had your reasons for keeping them waiting.

Claire: His reasons don't seem entirely believable to me, but okay.

Icy Cold Fox: Believe me if you want to or don't want to, but those are my reasons.

Akiza: Whatever the reasons, don't forget to close the chapter with your last statement.

Icy Cold Fox: Thank you, Akiza. Again, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I promise I'll try and have the next chapter up in a much sooner time than it took to get this one up. Don't forget to leave a review, because those are always appreciated! :)


	7. Returning To Familiar Grounds

Icy Cold Fox: Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter.

Claire: It was okay, I guess.

Akiza: Claire, are you upset because of the conditions you've been in?

Claire: Yes..

Icy Cold Fox: I'm sorry Claire. But don't worry.

Claire: What do you mean?

Icy Cold Fox: Read the chapter and you'll have that answer.

Claire: Why do you have to be like that?

Icy Cold Fox: One, because I don't like to give any spoilers. Two, I'm sorry to say, but it's honestly a little bit amusing to see you get annoyed.

Claire: Mean.

Icy Cold Fox: I know. Anyways, I don't own any of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any of its characters. I only own the characters I created and the storyline. Enjoy!

Chapter 6

Returning To Familiar Grounds

Claire was sitting in the back seat of the family's car looking out the window as Yusei drove his family home. After two months, she was finally released from the hospital. She still felt tired, but she was relieved to be out of the hospital. Despite how she hated her stay in the hospital, mainly because of the horrible-tasting food and the lack of things to do, Claire couldn't help but think about what happened while she was there. She remembered that the doctors told her when they were leaving that she had to use crutches for a couple weeks, and that she should try and avoid dueling until she was fully recovered.

During the first week of her stay in the hospital, Claire slept most of the time, but whenever she was awake, she always found that someone was there keeping her company. Most of the time it was her parents, but her grandparents had visited occasionally, as well as her friends and their families. The Hogans, Crow, his wife Sam, and their daughter and Claire's friend, Raven, went out of town on a family trip shortly after Claire was admitted into the hospital, but they returned a week and a half before Claire was released from the hospital and visited her every day.

Claire also remembered how her mother had told her about Austin, the boy that had seen her accident and how he visited her during the first couple of days that Claire was in the hospital. Akiza had told her about how he seemed to be polite, and Claire found herself a little disappointed that she didn't get to meet him then. Her disappointment was dissolved, however, when he came to visit her a couple weeks later when she was awake. Her parents weren't in the room with her when he visited, so it felt awkward to her and she didn't say too much. They talked long enough for Claire to confirm what her mother had told her about him.

"Claire. Claire!" Her father's voice snapped Claire out of her thoughts as she turned her attention towards him. "Good, I have your attention. I know it's been a while, but I hope you noticed that we're home." Yusei told his daughter with a bit of amusement in his voice.

_Home sweet home. Finally._ Claire thought to herself. She grabbed her crutches and got of the car, following her parents inside the house through the garage door. "I'm going to go take a quick nap. I'm still fairly tired." Claire told her parents.

"Okay, sweetie." Akiza replied. "Me or your father will wake you up if you don't wake up from your nap before I start making dinner." She told her daughter.

Claire gave her mother an acknowledging nod and then went upstairs into her room, closing the door behind her. She noticed that her room looked the same to her as she last saw it, except that her duel disk was set on her bed and her deck was on the nightstand beside the bed. She picked up her duel disk and set it in the corner of her room where it was out of the way and she wouldn't trip over it. She noticed as she went to sit down on her bed that one of her cards was face-down, separated from the rest of the deck. She turned it over, and saw that it was her Dark Magician card.

Claire sat on her bed for a few minutes, holding her damaged card in her hands and staring at it. She didn't know how long she'd been staring at it when she started to feel tears running down her cheeks. She placed the card on top of her deck and lied down on her bed. Tears continued to fall from Claire's eyes as she thought about the card that her father had gotten her, and she ended up crying herself to sleep.

Yusei came into Claire's room shortly after she fell asleep. He noticed that Claire's Dark Magician card was no longer separated from the rest of her deck and figured that she finally saw it for herself. He felt torn again as he stared at the card for a moment before turning to look at his daughter, who was still taking her nap. He noticed that her eyes looked a little puffy and that her cheeks were wet, so he guessed to himself that Claire had cried herself to sleep. He sat down beside his sleeping daughter and wiped the tears from her face, and then softly stroked her hair for a couple short moments.

After a few minutes, Yusei got up and left Claire's room, closing the door behind him. He went downstairs into the kitchen, where Akiza was starting to prepare dinner. "You might want to postpone dinner for a little bit." Yusei said as he entered the kitchen.

"Why's that?" Akiza asked. "I thought you just went upstairs to wake Claire up?"

"I was going to, but I noticed that Claire's card was moved, so she must have looked at it. I also saw that her eyes were a little puffy and her cheeks were wet, so she must have cried herself to sleep." Yusei told her. "I figured that we should let her sleep for a little bit longer."

"Okay. Dinner can wait a little bit longer then." Akiza replied. She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. Yusei pulled out another chair and sat down next to his wife.

"I hate seeing Claire so upset." Yusei admitted with a sigh.

"Why don't we throw Claire a 'Welcome home' party tomorrow?" Akiza suggested. "I'm sure that will cheer her up, being surrounded by friends and family that love her."

"That sounds like a good idea." Yusei answered. "Although we'll need to have her well distracted so she doesn't figure out what we're up to. She's good at figuring out when someone is up to something."

"We could have her Claire hang out with her friends in the park to distract her." Akiza suggested. "While they're all at the park, we could have the Atlases, Hogans, and Kesslers help set up the house for the party while all of the children are at the park. Once we're all done with that, we can go and pick them all up."

"And if Claire asks why we're giving them a ride?" Yusei asked.

"We'll come up with something. Probably something along the lines that their parents are stuck at work and they asked if they could stay here until they got off of work." Akiza answered.

Yusei remained silent for a couple moments to think. "Sounds good. We should probably give them all a call right now to set up the plans before Claire wakes up." Yusei said, getting a nod of agreement from his wife.

After spending a half an hour with Akiza talking to the other families over the phone to set up plans for the next day, Yusei went upstairs up to his daughter's room. He quietly opened the door and saw that she was still asleep. _Good, she's still asleep. No need to worry about her figuring out the plans yet. _He thought to himself as he sat down next to his daughter. He gently nudged his daughter. "Claire, it's time to get up for dinner." He said quietly.

Claire groaned as she slowly sat up while rubbing her eyes. "Why is it that you always get me up right when I'm having a good dream?" She mumbled quietly.

"Sorry about that, sweetie. But dinner will be ready in a few minutes if you don't want to go hungry tonight." Yusei said with laughter in his voice as he ruffled his daughter's hair.

"Okay. I'll be down in a few minutes." Claire replied, giggling a little at her father's gesture. She figured she would take her time, and decided to stay sitting on her bed for a minute as Yusei got up and left the room, closing the door behind him. After he left, Claire got up and changed into a pair of red pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt, figuring that she may as well change into clothes that she'd sleep in that night.

After getting changed, Claire grabbed her crutches and went downstairs into the kitchen. "Dinner smells good, Mom." She said as she pulled out a chair and sat down, setting her crutches down underneath the table at her spot. Yusei was in his spot at the table looking over something, but Claire couldn't see what it was. "What are you working on, Dad?" She asked.

"Just some schematics for your duel runner." Yusei replied. "As horrible as your accident was, I think some good may have come out of it."

"What do you mean?" Claire asked, confused.

"Well, as you know, I've been working on it every day to get it repaired. With the work I've been able to do on it so far, I think I may have found to make your runner's performance better than it was before." Yusei replied, getting an amazed look from his daughter.

"Sorry to interrupt, but dinner is ready." Akiza announced, setting three plates on the table before sitting down in her spot next to Yusei while he set his schematics off to the side of the table.

The Fudos ate in silence. Claire didn't mind, however, as she felt it was a comfortable silence. That silence was broken when Yusei belched rather loudly, causing Claire and Akiza to start giggling a little at him. "Sorry about that." He said while barely being able to keep from bursting out laughing. "Well, since I broke the silence, I guess I could ask you now instead of after dinner." He commented before taking another bite of food.

"Ask me what, Dad?" Claire asked.

"Your friends called while you were taking your nap and wanted to know if you'd want to hang out with them at the park tomorrow." Yusei answered.

"Sounds good to me." Claire replied. "I'll give them all a call after dinner and tell them I'll be there. I could use the fresh air after being inside for two months anyways." She joked.

After she finished eating, Claire called her friends like she said she would. She could tell by how they each reacted on the phone that they were exciting about getting to see her the next day. She didn't think about it for long, because she went back to bed shortly after she finished talking to all of them. Claire fell asleep with the thought that tomorrow was going to be a great day.

_**Elsewhere in the city**_

"Any updates that I should be concerned with, Austin?" A man asked a holographic image of the person he was talking to on a communication device.

"Well, she was released from the hospital today. Other than that, there isn't really anything else." Austin replied.

"This is good news. I want you to still keep an eye on her, and try to gain her trust if you can. Understood?" The man instructed.

"Yes sir, Sayer." The boy replied. With that, Sayer turned off the communication device, leaving himself alone in his office. He went to the window and looked out at the city. _You may think this is all over now, little miss Fudo, but it has only just begun._

* * *

Icy Cold Fox: Sorry if this chapter is a little bit short, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Yusei: Why wouldn't they have enjoyed it?

Icy Cold Fox: Well, unless they just plain don't like the story, I don't know how to answer that, Yusei.

Claire: I know that I'm liking it... *rolls eyes*

Icy Cold Fox: Oh don't be like that Claire. You don't have to worry for a little while.

Claire: What do you mean?

Icy Cold Fox: You'll find out later in the story.

Claire: You know, I'm honestly annoyed that you keep telling me that.

Icy Cold Fox: And I will continue to get a laugh out of that.

Claire: You're mean.

Icy Cold Fox: I know. Anyways, I hope you will all read and review this chapter, as well as the previous chapters if you haven't done so for them already. I hope to have the next chapter up within the next week or so. I'm also going to be getting started on another story a little earlier than I planned, so I hope you'll read that one as well once I start getting that one up.


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